Poli Marichal

Combines animation and documentary footage to illustrate the origins and impact of the musical genres Bomba and Plena in Puerto Rican culture.

Musings about what it means to travel, let the imagination fly, and to escape from reality. Combines documentary footage, animation on paper, and hand-painted and scratched film.

Tale about the fragility of power, the story of a David and a Goliath. Animated frame by frame with modeling clay on a light box's glass.

The film is set in the island of Puerto Rico. Because of its central location in the Caribbean, the island has become one of the main ports of drug entry from South America into the United States. The film follows the lives of three families in different levels of society affected by drug trafficking and crime in the island.

Animated documentary highlighting the importance of protecting the environment and conserving it through the care and cultivation of flora and fauna.

Hand painted, scratched Super 8 film meditating on Puerto Rico's political status through the layering of traditional Bomba music and governmental speeches.

Biographical production that recreates the work of this artist, adoptive son of Puerto Rico, who stood out as a musician, photographer, filmmaker, producer, illustrator, etc.

Experimental film which incorporates a range of materials, ink, coloring pencils, watercolors, and graphite, to narrate the story of a woman who is transformed into a cat while she drinks the celebrated beverage of the island, coffee.

Artist / filmmaker Poli Marichal was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico and resides in Los Angeles, CA since 1989. She is considered one of the pioneers of experimental film in Puerto Rico. The experimental super 8mm shorts she created during the 1980”s, which combine animation, painted celluloid and documentary footage, have won awards at film festivals in the U.S., Canada, Brazil and Venezuela and have been exhibited widely. Currently she works in video and now digital animation, as well as prints, paintings and mixed media at her studio in Los Angeles.

Hand painted and scratched Super 8 film. 18fps.

Experimental Super 8 film featuring animated 3-D puppets based on the characters in Picasso’s painting.

First part of the Trilogy of the Island in which Poli Marichal expresses and vents the anger and frustration caused by the colonial situation.

Hand painted, scratched animated Super 8 film examining the contradictions of the psychopathology of colonization.

One night, while celebrating at home with friends during the San Sebastián Street Festival, a pregnant woman is visited by three characters, who could be unfoldings of herself, and take her on an inner journey in search of her identity.

Combines animation, documentary footage, and hand-painted film as well as slide projections, a painted 12" x 24" backdrop, and sculptural palm tree to create a kaleidoscopic portrait of the Puerto Rican psyche.

Teresa accidentally comes across Pablo, her old college love. Fifteen years ago, they had each left their country believing the other dead at the hands of a military dictatorship, and they must now come to terms with their past.

Animated documentary that collects the Christian tradition of the visit of the Three Wise Men to the manger where Jesus was born and adds elements typical of Puerto Rican national folklore.

This work recreates the spirit of frustration and is the result of scratching and painting the tiny super 8 mm frame without magnification. The soundtrack was performed with a percussion instrument and voice.